I used to be Britain's longest-running wrestling blogger. Then I got a proper job.

Friday, 30 January 2015

DVD Review: WWE Superstar Collection: Randy Orton

We're stepping into the cheap and cheerful world of the WWE Superstar Collection for our next review, and this time our subject is a third generation star who has been known by many names, Legend Killer, Viper, the Apex Predator. The man in question is Randy Orton.

So as is the custom with these collections let's start at the beginning with.....

June 28th, 2009Our man defends his WWE title against his former and future Evolution buddy Triple H in a Three Stages of Hell match at The Bash.

The rules for this one were simple: the first fall would be contested under normal wrestling rules, the second would be falls count anywhere, and the third, if needed, would be a stretcher match. As for the circumstances surrounding this match this was back when Orton, with a little help from his Legacy co-horts Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase, had taken out the various members of the McMahon family, and Trips was hoping to gain a measure of revenge.

The first fall went to Orton. The champion had been working over the leg Trips injured during their last man standing match on the previous edition of Raw, and although the Game came back briefly Orton connected with his trademark backbreaker, sending Trips out of the ring. Orton spent the next few moments recovering, but when he went to pull his man back into the ring Trips clobbered him with a chair, earning him an immediate disqualification and giving Orton the led.

The second fall came mere moments later. Having gotten himself intentional disqualified Trips continued his chair attack, clobbering him time and time again. Orton managed to roll out of the ring, but it wasn't long before Trips followed him and took him down with a pedigree for the equalizer.

The final fall, the stretcher match, was certainly a lot more eventful as these two tried to beat the proverbial out of each other as the brawled around ringside with a brief foray into the crowd. Eventually the action moved to the stage, but just when it looked like Trips was going to get the win when he took Orton down with a pedigree on the metal Orton's lackeys Rhodes and Dibiase appeared, stopping him from pushing the stretcher over the finishing line. At one point the numbers were too great for him, until he pulled out the sledgehammer he'd secreted under the stage.

Trips quickly took care of Rhodes and Dibiase, but just when he was about to do the same to Orton the Viper connected with a low blow, and another blow, this time with the help of the part of the stage that Trips had removed. He then put his man on the stretcher and pushed it a few inches to the finishing line for the title retaining win.

July 26th, 2009Our man faces Triple H again, but this time John Cena is thrown into the mix as he defends his WWE title in a triple threat match at Night of Champions.

Now this was an interesting one. I'm not normally a fan of seeing Cena and Orton against each other, but with Trips thrown in there as well this became quite an entertaining contest.

It began with the two challengers teaming up, in a manner of speaking, as they took their various shots at a rather reluctant Orton. The champion soon came back into the match though, and once things really got going the match became rather intriguing. All three man had their fair share of chances to take the win, but each kept coming up short.

The most interesting part was saved for the final few moments. Trips decided to try his luck by applying a sharpshooter to Orton, but by this time Cena had recovered enough to apply a crossface at the same time. It wasn't long before Orton was tapping out, putting the referee into a unique quandary, because he couldn't tell who Orton was tapping out to.

It didn't matter anyway, because a few seconds later Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes hit the ring again to attack Cena and Trips, and while the millionaire's son sent Trips out to ringside Cena fought back and hoisted Rhodes onto his shoulders. The now-recovered Orton saw his chance, using Rhodes as bait so he could take Cena down with an RKO for the winning pin.

March 1st, 2010Our man faces a different situation as he takes on his now-former charge Ted Dibiase on an edition of Raw.

It's your typical kind of television match for these third generation stars, broken up by a brief commercial break which made it a little difficult to follow the flow of the match. Dibiase looked quite good against his former mentor as he looked to pin him for the second time in eight days.

Things didn't exactly go to plan though, and when Orton looked like he was going to get the win Dibiase's buddy Cody Rhodes ran in for the save. The referee had no choice but to disqualify Dibiase. The Legacy boys then ganged up on Orton, and although they had the advantage Orton soon sent them running for cover.

June 19th, 2011It's the final match of the collection, and our man is now the World Champion, defending his title against Christian at Capitol Punishment.

You know, back then I remember quite enjoying this little rivalry, mainly because it didn't involve Orton feuding with someone called John Cena or Triple H. It was quite refreshing to see him go up against someone new, and Christian's slow heel turn as he became more and more frustrated at his inability to beat the man who ended his only World title reign after just five days was very well played out.

As for this particular match it had the added extra ingredient of Orton's medical condition, with the champion suffering from a concussion, caused during an attack by his challenger. It made for an interesting storyline as Orton looked a slight shadow of his normal self as Christian targeted his head time and time again.

But once again Christian's frustrations grew because no matter what he did he couldn't keep Orton down, despite the repeated blows to the head and the use of his new finisher of choice, the spear. Christian then looked for another way, only for Orton to avoid his top rope attack and connect with an RKO out of nowhere for the winning pin. Christian was none too happy with the outcome though, especially as his leg was under the bottom rope when Orton pinned him.

In conclusion - this is the second WWE Superstar Collection DVD I've reviewed now, and I have to say that my opinion on this series is kind of the same.

The matches here are okay, and for the relatively small price this would be seen by many as a bargain, but once again I'm left feeling that they could have done a whole lot more with this, perhaps even adding a couple of extra matches to pan this out to two hours or so.

But with that being said overall it's not that bad, and that's why I'm giving the release the thumbs up.

With thanks to Fremantle Media and Fetch Publicity for supplying a copy of this release. WWE Superstar Collection: Randy Orton is available to buy online at www.wwedvd.co.uk.